ET caught up with the pro dancer just moments after Monday's two-hour premiere.
Lindsay Arnold is opening up about the all-new season of Dancing With the Stars!
ET caught up with the pro dancer just moments after Monday's two-hour premiere, where she got candid about being paired with this season's most controversial contestant, former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.
"It is going to be natural to see tons of people having comments about what we're doing," said Lindsay, who won the season 25 mirrorball trophy with Jordan Fisher. "But what I love about this show is that so many different people come together and enjoy what we do and have fun, and that's what I wanted to do this entire season."
"We're already having fun and we're going to continue to do that," she added.
For the premiere, Spicer and Arnold rocked the ballroom to an energetic Salsa to the Spice Girls' "Spice Up Your Life."
"I was really happy," Spicer said of their performance. "If you saw where I started, and what this woman has done to get me to where I am today, it's nothing short of a miracle. This whole thing was about getting out of my comfort zone."
"This is payback," he joked. "For anyone that's wanted me to do something crazy, they got it tonight."
Spicer's involvement with the show has already received plenty of criticism from fans, who created a #BoycottDWTS hashtag and a petition in an attempt to get ABC to reconsider his casting prior to the premiere. Even host Tom Bergeron spoke out, writing, "A few months ago, during a lunch with DWTS' new executive producer, I offered suggestions for season 28. Chief among them was my hope that DWTS, in its return from an unprecedented year-long hiatus, would be a joyful respite from our exhausting political climate and free of inevitably divisive bookings from any party affiliation."
"I left that lunch convinced we were in agreement. Subsequently (and rather obviously), a decision was made to, as we often say in Hollywood, 'go a different direction,'" he continued. "It is the prerogative of the producers, in partnership with the network, to make whatever decisions they feel are in the best long term interests of the franchise. We can agree to disagree, as we do now, but ultimately it's their call. I'll leave to them to answer any further questions about those decisions." Read Bergeron's full statement here.
Last month, Spicer told ET that he decided to say "yes" to DWTS because he wanted to "have some fun in life" and "do something that was a new experience."
"The [press room] was a great experience. Some days were better than others, but I think this is going to be a lot more enjoyable," he said at the time. "I think it's a great show you can actually sit down as a family and watch. And for the first time, I think it'd be great to tell my kids, 'Hey, watch me on TV!'"
"This is a really good, wholesome show that America can sink its teeth into," he continued. "Most people probably saw one side [of me], which is just standing at a podium tussling with members of the media. Now it's an opportunity to see a different side that wasn't shown at that point."
Hear more in the video below.
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